College students are almost evenly divided into three camps when it comes to faith, according to a new study released Thursday.

About a third, 32%, are true believers. Another 32% are spiritual but not religious. And 28% consider themselves secular.

Researchers from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., asked students nationwide a series of questions about their spiritual, political and moral values, ranging from belief in God and worship attendance to climate change and same-sex marriage.

About 70% of the religious students were Christian, as were about 43% of the spiritual students.

Most of the secular students, and about a third of the spiritual students, were so-called "nones" – those with no religious identity, said researchers Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar.

While very few Americans identify as atheists or agnostics, a growing number fall into the "none" category. Polling from the Pew Research Center found the number of "nones" among all Americans grew from about 15% in 2007 to just under 20% in 2012.

The Trinity survey, conducted with the secular non-profit Center for Inquiry, was done in part to help understand the "none" group. In the survey, researchers said the nones show a "remarkable degree of indifference to religion."

Each group or brand of students in the survey had a distinct world view, researchers said.

Religious students go to church, are more likely to believe in creationism or intelligent design, and oppose assisted suicide, adoptions by same-sex couples and gun control. Secular students do not believe in God, endorse evolution, accept assisted suicide as moral, say gay couples should be able to adopt and want more gun control.

The spiritual students were split. They sided with the religious students on questions about God and with secular students on questions about politics and science.

Students from all three groups were worried about global warming, including 96% of the secular students and 80% of the religious students.

The findings "challenge to the notion that the nones are just 'religiously unaffiliated' or religious searchers who have not yet found a religious home," Kosmin and Keysar wrote. "This survey clearly revealed that today's students with a secular worldview, who are mainly nones, are not traditional theists."

Daniel Jansouzian, a junior at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, runs a start-up Pentacostal ministry at the school. He said many students grew up going to church but no longer attend.

Being religious now, he said, is a conscious choice. His group runs 4 Bible studies and a weekly worship service.

"We want to reach those who lost their faith or who are looking for something to believe in."

Mark Forrester, chaplain at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, said that the survey reflects changes he has seen in more than 20 years of campus ministry. He said that when he started at Austin Peay University in 1991, most students had some religious identity.

"They were either Protestant or Catholic," he said. "The biggest question was, what kind of Protestant are you? "

Now Jewish, Muslim, and other non Christian students are common as are those with no faith.

"All of our assumptions are out the window," he said.

For Stef McGraw, a second year student at the University of Northern

Iowa, the decision to become a secular came in high school. She grew up Unitarian and then dropped out.

" I realized I did not bit the claims of any religion," she said.

McGraw is president of the University of Northern Iowa Freethinkers and Inquirers, which she said has about 150 members.

She said she was surprised to find so many other nonbelievers at a school in Iowa, where Christianity remains very influential.

"There are more of us than I thought there would be," she said.

Ron Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, said the survey shows that non-believers are here to stay.

Many secular college students will eventually become community leaders, he said.

"Clearly, secular Americans are a constituency on the ascent, one that both political and cultural establishments can no longer afford to ignore," he said in a statement.

The online survey of 1,800 students was conducted in April and May. Researchers contacted students using e-mail address directories from 38 colleges and universities nationwide.